April 19, 201016 yr I think that Gigabyte eventually learned that their "feature" should not be enabled by default... Personally, I won't trust Gigabyte for unRAID server as long as that "feature" is in their BIOS. But that's just me. I don't think I'll ever use one either... I've never heard of anyone getting a BIOS update for the older boards... That is the least they could do.
April 19, 201016 yr Author I don't think there's a guarantee that x16 video card slot will work with a x4 card. Is this an issue that I need to consider? I had planned on using two Supermicro SASLP 8-port PCIe boards to get me up to 16 drives. I had assumed that as long as the board had two PCIe slots of x4 or higher, then I would be OK. i.e. two PCIe x16 slots would be suitable or an x8 & x16, x4 & x16 etc... That should work....right?
April 19, 201016 yr I had assumed that as long as the board had two PCIe slots of x4 or higher, then I would be OK. i.e. two PCIe x16 slots would be suitable or an x8 & x16, x4 & x16 etc... On some boards the x16 slot can only work with a video card. Many people have had this problem.
April 19, 201016 yr Is this an issue that I need to consider? I had planned on using two Supermicro SASLP 8-port PCIe boards to get me up to 16 drives. I had assumed that as long as the board had two PCIe slots of x4 or higher, then I would be OK. i.e. two PCIe x16 slots would be suitable or an x8 & x16, x4 & x16 etc... That should work....right? I don't know about the newer motherboard but the older motherboards usually don't support x4 SASLP on the x16 video card slot. They were mainly designed for graphic card.
April 20, 201016 yr Author OK, perhaps I was a bit hasty in buying these components.... I have this week off work and was hoping to spend some time tinkering, but it looks like that that's not going to happen...oh well... I'm having a really hard time finding a LGA 1156 board that I'm confident will get me to 20 drives since you guys say that the PCI-e x16 slots will probably not work as x4 slots....crap. I'm thinking of taking the restocking fee hit and returning the Motherboard, Processor, and Memory as soon as they arrive (with my tail tucked between my legs)... The Case, PSU, HDD, and Flash drive will all be useful for me once I get the other components nailed down. Well, OK...I did find this card at Newegg that will do 24 SATA ports from an x8 slot, but at $1000, that seems a little crazy.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151027&cm_re=pci_sata_card-_-16-151-027-_-Product Anyone know of an LGA 1156 board that will support 20 drives? (Last shot before I scrap this build and move back to LGA 775 or my first AMD system...) What about PCI-e x8 slots? They should take a x4 card. Right? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121385 (with a cheapo graphics card) Thanks to all for your input. I was too impatient to wait for all of the advice that I needed, but at least I'm not coming to these realizations after I've opened and assembled everything.
April 20, 201016 yr Author OK, so I lied.... Take this board with one x4 slot and two x1 slots. Put it together with one Supermicro SASLP 8-port PCIe and one HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 MSI Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130272 High Point Card: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16816115029 7 on-board SATA slots, 8 more with the SuperMicro board, and 4 with the Highpoint card. The Highpoint is only x1, but will I really notice? Yes, it keeps getting more expensive, but I'm already in for restocking fees for the stuff that I might return, so if I can keep from throwing that cash into the ether by keeping everything but the Motherboard, then I'm good with that.
April 20, 201016 yr wow, good to know. I didn't even know there's a 4 ports 1x card. I thought 1x only support 2 ports.
April 20, 201016 yr OK, perhaps I was a bit hasty in buying these components.... I have this week off work and was hoping to spend some time tinkering, but it looks like that that's not going to happen...oh well... I'm having a really hard time finding a LGA 1156 board that I'm confident will get me to 20 drives since you guys say that the PCI-e x16 slots will probably not work as x4 slots....crap. I'm thinking of taking the restocking fee hit and returning the Motherboard, Processor, and Memory as soon as they arrive (with my tail tucked between my legs)... If you listen to everything we tell you here, you'll end up checking yourself into the nearest hospital, telling them that you've gone insane, and asking them if that could be fixed. The Highpoint is only x1, but will I really notice? Four disks in a x1 slot, you'll certainly notice!
April 20, 201016 yr Author Still don't quite want to give up... How about this board: Intel BOXDP55WG LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121387 It has one x8 and one x4 slot. Two x4 cards should work in those slots. Right? There's no video connector, but I could get a super cheap PCI video card to go in one of the regular PCI slots. Is there a problem with that?
April 20, 201016 yr Newer motherboards should include all Socket 1156 (P55/H55), so it should handle any sort of device in the slots.
April 20, 201016 yr Still don't quite want to give up... How about this board: Intel BOXDP55WG LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121387 It has one x8 and one x4 slot. Two x4 cards should work in those slots. Right? Brilliant! This board will easily give you 24 disks without even touching the x16 slot or the PCI slots. But......don't you want to go with H55 instead of P55? (H55/i3 with video on chip, much better and power efficient)
April 20, 201016 yr That motherboard will NOT support the built in Video on the newer i3/i5, so you NEED a video card.
April 20, 201016 yr Author But......don't you want to go with H55 instead of P55? (H55/i3 with video on chip, much better and power efficient) Yes, I wanted a H55 board, but I can't find one with the necessary PCI-e slots for 20 drives. Newer motherboards should include all Socket 1156 (P55/H55), so it should handle any sort of device in the slots. Are you saying that the newer motherboards should accept a x4 card in a x16 slot? Or are you saying that the x4 card will work in the x4 & x8 slots on this board? I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me.
April 20, 201016 yr I am saying all newer chipsets should support any PCI Express compliant card in the full 16-lane PCI Express slot. Hence, you shouldn't need to worry about the 16-lane PCI Express slot NOT supporting a SAS/SATA/Non-Graphics card.
April 20, 201016 yr I am saying all newer chipsets should support any PCI Express compliant card in the full 16-lane PCI Express slot. Hence, you shouldn't need to worry about the 16-lane PCI Express slot NOT supporting a SAS/SATA/Non-Graphics card. Too bad I only have a SAT2-MV8 and not a SASLP-MV8. I would love to try it on my i3 board x16 slot. Hopefully someone out there can try it out on the H55/P55 board. Juano11, I haven't seen an i3 H55 ATX board with both x4 and x8 slots myself.
April 20, 201016 yr Author Some info from MSI regarding the MSI H55M-ED55 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard...Looks like that one is out.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130264&cm_re=MSI_H55M-ED55-_-13-130-264-_-Product However, less than 12 hours for a response from Pre-sale technical service...Nice. Me: 04/20/2010 I am interested in building a 20 drive unRaid NAS box with this motherboard and a Core i3 Processor. However, I will need to install two PCI-e x4 SATA cards to accomplish this. I plan on using these cards: SASLP-MV8 http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SASLP-MV8.cfm Will I be able to use both of the PCI-e x16 slots on this board for this? I plan on using the i3's integrated graphics. Thanks John MSI Tech: 04/20/2010 It can only support 1 add on controller card for all current models due to mb has built in controller.
April 20, 201016 yr MSI Tech: 04/20/2010 It can only support 1 add on controller card for all current models due to mb has built in controller. What does that even mean? ..."has built in controller" for what? This guy has no clue what he's talking about! First day on the job I guess.
April 20, 201016 yr Author Yeah his reasoning didn't exactly make sense to me either, but the take away message was clear. He didn't think that it would work. So, if I had trouble and contacted them about...they'd probably say "yeah, that won't work"... So, what's the consensus here? My previous understanding was that a x4 card "should" work in a x16 slot. Some here say yes, some say no. Has anyone done it? Thanks again to everyone, John
April 20, 201016 yr Author Buy, try, and find out. HA! I know, I know...It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that I'm sailing in uncharted waters here. Unfortunately, it's my first unRaid build and I have virtually zero experience with Linux (besides installing Unbuntu on an old desktop...that doesn't really qualify....). So, there's a lot more that I'm going to have to learn before getting this thing up and running. I don't want to compound my difficulties by starting out with components that are doomed to fail. Nor do I want to let my novice abilities have me declare "this doesn't work" to the community when It's just because I don't know how to make it work. Finally, this is a casual hobby for me. I enjoy building my own computers and learning about how to fix things when they don't work together. But, in those cases, I usually learn that stuff from forums like this and the people that frequent them. I'm certainly no professional...my paychecks come from much more "organic" work. If I hit a dead-end, I'd probably look for help here, and it looks like no-one has taken this path before... In trying to research this topic, it does appear that some HTPC guys have had trouble getting tuner cards to work in the x16 slot. It's unfortunate because the integrated processor graphics and on-board video connections of these boards seem to make them ideally suited for that purpose. Some manufacturers have responded to them that the x16 slot is intended for graphics cards (although this seems to defeat the purpose of the processor's integrated graphics function). So, others have had trouble getting non-graphics cards working in the x16 slot... I've sent some of the other H55 MoBo manufacturers questions about the PCI-e x16 slots on their boards. I'll let you know what they say... Once again, Thanks All, John
April 20, 201016 yr Keep in mind that it is still largely untested and an 'in progress' concept, but this may help you: Recommended Builds - 20 Drive Beast And here's the thread where we discuss it a bit: Help me design a 20 drive 'recommended build'
April 20, 201016 yr Keep in mind that it is still largely untested and an 'in progress' concept, but this may help you: Recommended Builds - 20 Drive Beast And here's the thread where we discuss it a bit: Help me design a 20 drive 'recommended build' I just read the spec for the 20 drive beast and it says: IPMI KVM over IP (This means that you can control every aspect of the server remotely, even BIOS! Ideal for a completely headless server hidden away in a closet or basement.) Doesnt that require a separate add-on card?
April 20, 201016 yr Yeah his reasoning didn't exactly make sense to me either, but the take away message was clear. He didn't think that it would work. He didn't have a clue what you were asking him about! I got five bucks here on 'it will work'.
April 20, 201016 yr Author I got five bucks here on 'it will work'. I'm feeling you. I think that it should too, but I'm going to go ahead and return the Mobo (bad choice anyway) and memory (only chose because of MoBo compatibility). His reasoning didn't make sense to me either, and I had to correct some of his "engrish" before I posted it here. In the end, the prompt response was nice, but it didn't give me confidence that MSI would be able to offer support if the card doesn't work. I've got support requests out to a couple of other manufacturers... I'm in no hurry anymore. I had this week to build it, so I rushed the purchase process. Since, I won't be building it this week, I've got time to try to get more info before choosing my final components. If anyone has some input, I'll take it. Additionally, I'll post any additional info I come across here.
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